Editing Bábism (section)

===Origin===
[[File:Room-bab.jpg|thumb|left|The room in the [[Báb's house]] in [[Shiraz]] where he declared his mission to Mulla Husayn.]]

On 22 May 1844,<ref name="dawn">{{cite book |first=R. |last=Mehrabkhani |year=1987 |title=Mullá Ḥusayn: Disciple at Dawn |publisher=Kalimat Press |location=Los Angeles, CA, USA |isbn=978-0-933770-37-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wDYnPNwuwtcC&pg=PA121 |pages=58–73}}</ref> [[Mullá Husayn]], of [[Boshruyeh]] in [[Greater Khorasan|Khorasan]], a prominent disciple of Sayyid Kāẓim, entered [[Shiraz]] following the instruction by his master to search for al-Qā'im. Soon after he arrived in Shiraz, Mullá Husayn came into contact with the Báb. On the night of 22 May 1844, Mulla Husayn was invited by the Báb to his home; on that night Mullá Husayn told him that he was searching for the possible successor to Sayyid Kāẓim, al-Qā'im, and the Báb told Mullá Husayn privately that he was Sayyid Kāẓim's successor and the bearer of divine knowledge.{{sfn|MacEoin|1988}} Through the night of the 22nd to dawn of the 23rd, Mullá Husayn became the first to accept the Báb's claims as the gateway to Truth and the initiator of a new prophetic cycle;<ref name="EoI" />{{sfn|MacEoin|1988}} the Báb had replied in a satisfactory way to all of Mullá Husayn's questions and had written in his presence, with extreme rapidity, a long commentary on the [[Yusuf (sura)|surah of Yusuf]], which has come to be known as the [[Selections from the Writings of the Báb#Qayyúmu'l-Asmáʼ|Qayyūmu l-Asmā']] and is often considered the Báb's first revealed work,<ref name="EoI" /> though he had before then composed a commentary on [[Al-Fatiha|Surat al-Fatihah]] and [[Surat al-Baqara]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Lawson |first=Todd |chapter=The Authority of the Feminine and Fatima's Place in an Early Work by the Bab |title=The Most Learned of the Shiʻa: The Institution of the MarjaʼTaqlid |year=2007 |pages=94–127}}</ref> This night and the following day are observed in the Bahá'í Faith as a [[Baháʼí calendar#Holy days|holy day]] since then.

After Mullá Husayn accepted the Báb's claim, the Báb ordered him to wait until 17 others had independently recognized the station of the Báb before they could begin teaching others about the new revelation.

Within five months, seventeen other disciples of Sayyid Kāẓim had independently recognized the Báb as a Manifestation of God.<ref name="BBCHistory">{{cite web |title=The Time of the Báb |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/bahai/history/bab_2.shtml |publisher=BBC |access-date=2 July 2006}}</ref> Among them was one woman, Zarrin Tāj Baraghāni, a poet, who later received the name of [[Táhirih]] (the Pure). These 18 disciples were later to be known as the [[Letters of the Living]] and were given the task of spreading the new faith across Iran and Iraq.{{sfn|MacEoin|1988}} The Báb emphasized the spiritual station of these 18 individuals, who along with himself, made the first "Unity" of his religion.{{sfn|Amanat|1989|p=191}}

After his declaration, he soon assumed the title of the Báb. Within a few years the movement spread all over Iran, causing controversy. His claim was at first understood by some of the public at the time to be merely a reference to the Gate of the Hidden Imám of Muhammad, but this understanding he publicly disclaimed. He later proclaimed himself, in the presence of the heir to the Throne of Persia and other notables, to be al-Qā'im. In the Báb's writings, the Báb appears to identify himself as the gate ({{transliteration|ar|báb}}) to Muhammad al-Mahdi and later he begins to explicitly proclaim his station as equivalent to that of the Hidden Imam and a new messenger from God.{{sfn|Saiedi|2008|p=19}} Saiedi states the exalted identity the Báb was claiming was unmistakable, but due to the reception of the people, his writings appear to convey the impression that he is only the gate to the Hidden Twelfth Imam.{{sfn|Saiedi|2008|p=19}} To his circle of early believers, the Báb was equivocal about his exact status, gradually confiding in them that he was not merely a gate to the Hidden Imam, but the Manifestation of the Hidden Imam and al-Qā'im himself.<ref name="EoA">{{cite book |chapter=Resurgence of Apocalyptic in Modern Islam |first=Abbas |last=Amanat |author-link=Abbas Amanat |editor=Stein, Stephen J. |title=The Encyclopedia of Apocalypticism, vol. III: Apocalypticism in the Modern Period and the Contemporary Age. |location=New York |publisher=Continuum |year=2000 |pages=241–242 |isbn=978-0-8264-1255-3}}</ref> During his early meetings with Mullá Husayn, the Báb described himself as the Master and the Promised One; he did not consider himself just Sayyid Kāẓim Rashti's successor, but claimed a prophetic status, with a sense of deputyship delegated to him not just from the Hidden Imam, but from Divine authority.{{sfn|Amanat|1989|p=171}} His early texts, such as the Commentary on the Sura of Yusuf, used Qur'anic language that implied divine authority and identified himself effectively with the Imam.{{sfn|MacEoin|1988}}{{sfn|Amanat|1989|pp=230–31}} When Mullā ʿAlī Basṭāmī, the second Letter of the Living, was put on trial in [[Baghdad]] for preaching about the Báb, the clerics studied the Commentary on the Sura of Yusuf, recognized in it a claim to divine revelation, and quoted from it extensively to prove that the author had made a messianic claim.{{sfn|Amanat|1989|pp=230–231}}